Iowa City’s Normal Academy Of Music – 1867-1871.

In 1857, when the State of Iowa moved the state capitol to Des Moines – removing all governmental offices from Iowa City, our fair community had a true identity problem on its hands. But fortunately, it wasn’t long before a new identity took root, and as it is today, Iowa City quickly became the educational center for the state. With the State University of Iowa (SUI) being fully granted to our city (1857), soon other training schools began popping up around town as well. Read more about the early commercial colleges of Iowa City here.

By the mid-1860’s, Iowa City had taken on the nickname – The Athens of Iowa – meaning that more and more people around the state were perceiving Iowa City as the state’s center for higher education and the arts. Read more about the nickname here.

First organized by local residents (see names above) in June 1866, The Iowa State Normal Academy of Music At Iowa City opened its doors for its first summer session on Tuesday, August 6, 1867. In order to give you a full overview of the school and its history, we’ve reproduced here on this page, a complete article on the school, written and published by historian Pauline Grahame for the September 1929 edition of The Palimpsest magazine. So, here we go, with side commentary & photographs offered along the way…

As the Civil War came to an end in 1865, Iowa City saw the development of several new training academies – St. Agatha’s Women’s Seminary (1862), Iowa City Commercial College (1867), and Iowa City Academy (1870) – just to name a few. One of the short-lived schools that is often overlooked by historians is the highly-successful five-year run of The Normal Academy of Music (NAM). The term “Normal” – when applied to education – is relatively foreign to us today, but in the 19th century, a “normal” school was either a state-funded or private school that offered a curriculum that would be equivalent to a high school or junior college education today. Read more about the SUI Normal School here.

***Below is that July 3, 1867 article from The State Press.*** Note that while the name “Iowa State” is attached to the school’s name in this article, the Academy had no state funding, nor was it a part of the State University of Iowa (SUI). The hope of the local investment group was that the Academy, once well-established, would be invited to be adopted into the SUI curriculum. More on that later.

**Professor Henry S. Perkins** had an illustrious career in music education (see below), and his brother **Jule E. Perkins** – who served as a co-director at the Academy. was a well-known vocalist and pianist as well.

***After several weeks of practice in one of the upper chambers of Old Capitol, the first concert was held at Metropolitan Hall (pictured below) on Friday night, August 30, 1867.***

The State Press – on August 28, 1867 (above) – offered both an invitation to the gala event with tickets priced at only 35-cents – and an honest review – on September 4, 1867 – of the evening (below). Read more about Iowa City’s Metropolitan Hall here.

As the Academy’s first summer session came to a close, the school celebrated with a Grand Closing Concert on September 13, 1867 – held, once again, at Metropolitan Hall. Below are more details from historian Pauline Grahame, about the school, the staff, the students, and the type of classes offered at the Academy…

Over a five-year period (1867-1871), Iowa Citians were offered many concerts to attend – all of which featured the staff and students of the Academy.

As mentioned earlier, **Metropolitan Hall** (above) in downtown Iowa City hosted the Academy’s larger concerts. **Franklin Market Music Hall** on the SE corner of Dubuque Street & Iowa Avenue (below) hosted concerts as well before a fire destroyed the building in 1868. *Read more about these early entertainment centers here.*

*Smaller concerts were held in the old Senate Chambers of Old Capitol and the Chapel of North Hall (above right & below).*

Below, The Iowa City Republican reported extensively on both the program as a whole and the concerts of the Academy during its fourth season in Iowa City…

Historian Pauline Grahame wrote much about the 1870 season as well…

Grahame also tells us more about the school’s two leading figures – Professor Henry S. Perkins, and his talented brother, Jule E. Perkins…

As we mentioned earlier, there was a great hope by those who invested in the Academy that their program would become so successful that the growing State University of Iowa would decide to bring the entire program into its own curriculum, forming, in one sense, a SUI School of Music. From what we found doing some research on the subject, it appears that while the Academy’s programming was top-notch, the school’s staff became quite divided amongst themselves – causing so much inner conflict that: 1) the NAM Board had to take action to dismiss one employee – Secretary O.C. Isbel (see details below)…

…and 2) SUI – which had planned to incorporate the NAM program into its curriculum refused to do so because of this staffing disarray (see details below taken the 1872 Annals of Iowa)…

Yet, despite the major staffing issues (above), this report also speaks highly to the quality of the Academy programming as compared to the poor music education given to students at the Normal School at SUI (see details below)…

*Sadly, it wasn’t until 1906 when SUI added a School of Music to their curriculum, so in many ways, the Normal Academy of Music was 40 years ahead of its time in Iowa City!*

***The Normal Academy Of Music – Five Years – 610 Students Trained.***

All in all, Professor H.S. Perkins and his team were ahead of their time – doing one bang-up job in helping Iowa City become the home to some of the earliest music education courses in Iowa!